Drugs of Abuse: Psychedelic Agents

1. Drugs of Abuse:Psychedelic Agents By: Kimber Bailey

2. Topics of Discussion • Hallucinogens • Defined • Types • Psychedelic Drugs • Classes • LSD • Psilocybin mushrooms • Uses for Psychedelic Drugs • Previous practices • Past beliefs • Psychedelic Psychotherapy • Psycholytic Therapy • Psychedelic Therapy • Current Research and Therapy

3. Hallucinogens • These are mind altering elements that induce experiences that are qualitatively different from those experienced in ordinary consciousness. • Almost all hallucinogens contain nitrogen and are therefore classified as alkaloids. • Many hallucinogens have chemical structures similar to those of human neurotransmitters, such as serotonin, and temporarily modify the actions of neurotransmitters and receptor sites.

4. Hallucinogens Serotonin Neurotransmitter: Norepinephrine http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Norepinephrine http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Serotonin Hallucinogen: Mescaline http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mescaline

5. Hallucinogens • Irony of Hallucinogenic Drugs • These drugs do not actually cause hallucinations. • Hallucinogens simply modify a person’s regular perception. • The person is usually quite aware of the illusions and nature of the perceptions that he or she is experiencing.

6. Hallucinogens • Common Misinterpretation • It is believed that the effects of hallucinogens mimic psychological conditions. • For example, many people believe the use of hallucinogens will lead to the following: • Psychosis • Schizophrenia • Thought disorder

7. Hallucinogens • However, these types of drugs can actually result in psychological trauma if consumed without a person’s knowledge. • Date rape drugs are a common case that cause extreme vomiting and loss of memory.

8. Hallucinogens There are three types of hallucinogens: 1. Psychedelics • psychoactive drugs whose primary action is to alter the thought processes of the brain 2. Dissociatives • reduce or block signals to the conscious mind from other parts of the brain, typically the physical senses 3. Deliriants • also called anticholinergics • a special class of dissociatives which are antagonists for the acetylcholine receptors • These three drug classes can all cause subjective changes in one’s perception of thought, emotion, and consciousness.

9. Psychedelic Drugs • Many psychedelic drugs are thought to disable filters which keep signals that are unrelated to everyday functions from reaching the conscious mind. • This filtering has been described as mind expanding, or consciousness expanding. • The drug “expands” the realm of experience available to conscious awareness. • These filtered signals are presumed to originate in several other functions of the brain, including the senses, emotions, memories, and the subconscious mind.

10. Psychedelic Drugs • The most remarkable characteristic of psychedelic drugs is the variation in their effects. • The level and type of effect that is achieved is dependent among: • Dosage • Set/Type • Setting • Many psychedelics are extremely nontoxic. • It is difficult to overdose on these compounds alone. • Combinations with other drugs make overdosing more likely.

11. Psychedelic Drugs • There are three common classes: • Serotonergic Psychedelics • These are serotonin 5-HT2A receptor agonists. • Empathogens and Entactogens • These are serotonin releasers. • Cannabinoids • These are CB-1 cannabinoid receptor agonists.

12. Serotonergic Psychedelics • This class includes the major hallucinogens • Tryptamine-based compounds • LSD and psilocybin • Phenethylamine-based compounds • Mescaline and 2C-B • At lower doses, these include sensory distortions such as the warping of surfaces, shape suggestibility, and color variations. • Higher doses often cause intense and fundamental distortions of sensory perception such as synesthesia or the experience of additional spatial or temporal dimensions.

13. Empathogens and Entactogens • These are phenethylamines. • Examples include MDMA (or ecstasy), MDA, and similar drugs. • The effects are characterized by feelings of openness, euphoria, empathy, love, and heightened self-awareness. • However, visual hallucinations is not experienced by the user.

14. Cannabinoids • The cannabinoids are Tetrahydrocannabinol (THC) and related compounds. • These compounds are capable of activating the body’s endogenous cannabanoid system. • The effects associated with these drugs are • General change in consciousness, mild euphoria, feelings of general well-being. • Relaxation or stress reduction. • Increased appreciation of humor, music and other art, joviality, metacognition and introspections. • Enhanced recollection of episodic memory, increased sensuality, loss of inhibition, creative or philosophical thinking. • Disruption of linear memory, paranoia, agitation, and anxiety.

15. Two Examples of Psychedelic Drugs LSD Psilocybin Mushrooms “acid” “shrooms” http://www.usdoj.gov/dea/photos/lsd/lsd_blotter_full_sheet.jpg http://www.jeshannon.com/images/shrooms.jpg

16. LSD • Lyrsergic acid diethylamide, LSD, LSD-25, or acid is a semisynthetic psychedelic drug. • LSD binds to most serotonin receptor subtypes except for serotonin 5-HT3 and serotonin 5-HT4. • Recreational doses can affect 5-HT1A, 5-HT2A, 5-HT2C, 5-HT5A, 5-HT5B, and 5-HT6 receptors. • The hallucinogenic effects are attributed to its strong partial agonist effects at 5-HT2A receptors. • Specific 5-HT2A agonist drugs are hallucinogenic, so large 5-HT2A specific antagonists block the hallucinogenic activity of LSD.

17. LSD http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/LSD

18. LSD • LSD is, by mass, one of the most potent drugs yet discovered. • Dosages are measured in micrograms. • Doses of almost all other drugs, both recreational and medical, are measured in milligrams. • While a typical single dose of LSD may be between 100 and 500 micrograms, threshold effects can be felt with as little as 20 micrograms. • Dosages by frequent users can be as high as 1,200 micrograms, although such a high dosage may precipitate unpleasant physical and psychological reactions.

19. LSD • Estimates for the lethal dosage (LD50) of LSD range from 200 μg/kg to more than 1 mg/kg of human body mass. • There are no known human cases of such an overdose. • LSD is not considered to be addictive. • Users do not exhibit the commonly accepted definitions of addiction and physical dependence. • Rapid tolerance build-up prevents regular use. • This tolerance diminishes after a few days’ abstention from use.

20. LSD • LSD’s psychological effects vary greatly from person to person, depending on factors such as previous experiences, state of mind and environment, as well as dose strength. • LSD causes expansion and altered experience of senses, emotions, memories, time, and awareness for 6 to 14 hours, depending on dosage and tolerance. • There is a reported 30% possibility of “flashbacks”. • A psychological phenomenon in which an individual experiences an episode of some of LSD’s subjective effects long after the drug has worn off—sometimes weeks, months, or even years afterward. • Flashbacks can incorporate both positive and negative aspects of LSD trips.

21. Psilocybin Mushrooms • Psilocybin is a psychedelic alkaloid of the tryptamine family and is found in psilocybin mushrooms. • It is present in hundreds of species of fungi, including those of the genus Psilocybeand Panaeolus. • The intensity and duration of recreational and entheogenic use of psilocybin mushrooms vary depending on species of mushrooms, dosage, individual physiology, and set and setting.

22. Psilocybin Mushrooms http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Psilocybin

23. Psilocybin Mushrooms • Psilocybin is a prodrug that is converted, mostly in the liver, into the pharmacologically active compound psilocin in the body by dephosphorylation. • It is broken down by monoamine oxidase. • This chemical reaction takes place under strongly acidic conditions or enzymatically by phosphatases in the body. http://www.hallucinogen.dk/rusmidler/psykedelika/svampe/images/biokemi/dephosphorylase.gif

24. Psilocybin Mushrooms • Many types of psilocybin mushrooms bruise blue when handled or damaged. • This is due to the oxidation of active compounds, however, bruising is not a definitive method of determining a mushroom’s potency. • Psilocybin is rapidly dephosphorylated in the body to psilocin which then acts as a partial agonist at the 5-HT2A serotonin receptor in the brain where it mimics the effects of serotonin. • Psilocybin is an 5-HT1A and 5-HT2A/2C agonist. • The toxicity of psilocybin is relatively low – approximately 12.5 mg/kg • The psilocybin content of psychoactive mushrooms is quite variable and depends on species growth conditions, drying conditions, and mushroom size.

25. Psilocybin Mushrooms • Effects last from 2-6 hours depending on dose, species, individual brain chemistry, and individual metabolism. • The effects are often pleasant, even ecstatic. • They including a deep sense of connection to others, confusion, hilarity, and a general feeling of connection to nature and the universe. • Difficult trips may occur when psychedelic compounds are taken in a non-supportive of inadequate environment, by an inexperienced person, or in an unexpectedly high doses. • At low doses, hallucinatory effects occur. • Walls seem to breathe, a vivid enhancement of colors occurs, and organic shapes become animated. • At higher doses, experiences tend to be less social and more entheogenic. • It often catalyzing intense spiritual experiences.

26. Uses for Psychedelic Drugs • Early military research focused on their use as incapacitating agents. • They were hypothesized to induce a subject to talk during an interrogation. • The drugs use was very inconsistent. • The individuals did not consistently speak accurately and coherently. • The types of hallucinogens have been used within medicinal and religious traditions around the world. • They have been used in shamanic forms of ritual healing and divination, in initiation rites, and in the religious rituals of syncretistic movements.

27. Uses for Psychedelic Drugs • The rise of the Abrahamic religions (Judaism, Christianity, and Islam) caused a decline of entheogenic use. • Ethenogenic is the term used to describe the effects of the drugs during ceromonial or spiritual use. • The authority of scripture and the priesthood gradually reduced the role granted to direct spiritual experience, especially by the laity. • Interest in the drugs tended to focus on either the potential for psychotherapeutic applications of the drugs. • Also, hallucinogens were used to produce a “controlled psychosis”. • This use was in order to understand psychotic disorders such as schizophrenia. • Hallucinogens were also researched in several countries for their potential as agents of chemical warfare.

28. Psychedelic Psychotherapy • Psychedelic psychotherapy refers to psychotherapeutic practices involving the use of psychedelic drugs. • The use of the term psychedelic emphasizes the ability of psychedelic drugs to facilitate exploration of the psyche, which is fundamental to most methods of psychedelic psychotherapy. • Many studies found that the use of psychedelic drug greatly facilitated psychotherapeutic processes and proved particularly useful for patients with problems that were otherwise difficult to treat. • Alcoholics, drug addicts, sociopaths, and psychopaths • Hallucinogen Persisting Perception Disorder (HPPD) is a diagnosed condition where some effects of hallucinogenic drugs persist after a long time. • Medical technology has yet to determine what causes this condition.

29. Psychedelic Psychotherapy • Some hypothesize that drugs such as LSD may be useful in psychotherapy, especially when the patient is unable to “unblock” repressed subconscious material through other psychotherapeutic methods. • Experiments concerning the use of psilocybin in the treatment of personality disorders and other uses in psychological counseling have also been conducted.

30. Psychedelic Psychotherapy • Multidisciplinary Association for Psychedelic Studies (MAPS) began in 2001 to study the effects of psilocybin on patients with obsessive-compulsive disorder. http://www.maps.org/pioneers/images/hofmann_large.jpg http://www.maps.org/pioneers/images/huxley_large.jpg

31. Psychedelic Psychotherapy Psycholytic Therapy: • Primarily studied in Europe, psycholytic therapy involves the use of low to medium doses of psychedelic drugs, repeatedly at intervals of 1-2 weeks. • The therapist is present during the peak of the experience and at other times as required. • He or she assists the patient in processing material that arises and is present to offer support when necessary. Psychedelic Therapy • Primarily researched in North America, psychedelic therapy involves the use of very high doses of psychedelic drugs, with the aim of promoting a transcendental, ecstatic, religious, or mystical peak experience.

32. Psychedelic Psychotherapy Current Research and Therapy: • Current research therapy includes using psilocybin with terminally ill patients in the intention of helping them to accept their condition. • The stress and anxiety experienced by many terminally ill patients causes them much suffering in the last months of their lives • Some patients claimed that the use of psilocybin helped them tremendously in terms of acceptance. • Other therapies include the use of MDMA, more commonly known as Ecstasy, to treat Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD).

33. Sources • http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/LSD • http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Psychedelics%2C_dissociatives_and_deliriants • http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Psychedelic_therapy • http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Psilocybin_mushrooms • Benjamin, C. “Persistent Psychiatric Symptoms After Eating Psilocybin Mushrooms.” British Medical Journal. 1.6174 (1979): 1319-20. • Eveloff, Herbert H. “The LSD Syndrome—A Review.” California Medicine. 109.5 (1968): 368-73. • Snyder, Solomon H., and Elliot Richelson. “Psychedelic Drugs: Steric Factors that Predict Psychotropic Activity.” Science. 60 (1968): 206-13. • The Lancet. “Reviving Research into Psychedelic Drugs.” The Lancet. 367.9518 (2006): 1214.